If you attended the reopening of our building back in October 2025, you may have heard the sound of bells ringing from St James Church, who rang in celebration just as they did for the Town Hall centenary back in 1989. Veronica from St James Church tell us more. . .
Back in ’89 the celebratory ring, also known as a ‘peal’, took a whole 3 hours and 12 minutes; that’s without a break of any kind, so as you can imagine it required a lot of concentration! For The Old Town Hall’s reopening we rang rounds and call changes on 10 bells followed by a Quarter Peal on 6 bells. Of those who rung back in ’89, three of us are still ringing regularly; Brian Coward, who was the conductor, Robert Quartley and myself.
The bells at St James are traditionally rung for civic occasions, for example to welcome Royal visitors, to celebrate the switching on of the Christmas lights, or on Remembrance Sunday. They are also rung to mark national events, such as the dawn of the new century in 2000, the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and the accession of King Charles III. The tenor, the heaviest of the 12 bells, can also be rung in memory. More recently we’ve rung in memory of the estimated 100,00 people who died from Covid 19, and in memory of The Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth II.
Emma Willott, who recently joined our group, tells us more about her experience of becoming a bell ringer:
“I wandered into St James’ Church in Trowbridge on Heritage Day to look around, with no knowledge or interest in bellringing. I was persuaded to “have a go” and a year on, encouraged by a lovely and friendly group of bell ringers, I am well and truly hooked. I will ring at every available opportunity and love it!
Forget any ideas you might have about who it’s for – it really is for anyone and everyone. People of all ages and from all walks of life learn to ring bells and have a lot of fun doing it. You don’t have to be strong or have any musical knowledge – and in time you can learn to make the most wonderful sounds on some magnificent old bells with other people – as people have been doing for many hundreds of years. You’re challenged to learn mentally and physically which means it’s always interesting – but that happens very much at your own pace as you build the skills you need along with your confidence.
I love being able to ring on Sunday mornings so that people can hear the bells across Trowbridge, as well as to mark special occasions for the town such as on New Year’s Eve and on the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
So for anyone thinking “could I do that”, I can only repeat what was said to me, which is come along and have a go!”
You can find out more about St James Church here.
Practice night is Wednesday at 7pm, email bells@stjamestrowbridge.co.uk and our head across to our Facebook page.